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The underestimated strength of a mushroom

Yes, there are mushrooms growing in my driveway.

She didn’t believe me – she had to see for herself, my friend Susan, who lives in an Atlanta neighborhood where most everything is nice and tidy, with no mushrooms growing in anyone’s driveway.

When I brought her out to see them – brown, fleshy buttons, pushing through the black asphalt like crowning infant heads – she pushed down on the soft top of one with her finger, exclaiming, “It IS a mushroom – how can a mushroom be strong enough to do this?”

She looked around at all of the holes surrounded by black chunks of broken driveway – a real mess in her eyes.

“Pour vinegar on them,” she said. “That’ll stop them from growing.”

But I don’t want to stop them from growing – does that make me crazy? (And if so, who cares?)

The fact is, those mushrooms give me strength and hope each day I drive past them. Because if a mushroom can push through concrete, by golly, any one of us is capable of unbounded strength and greatness.